Salt Water Taffy

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
-- Walter Lippmann

Tuesday, May 4, 1999
One year ago: Praise

Jack wrote me today. Being cut off from the web, in a strange town, staying in a motel, and starting a new job; no wonder he feels somewhat isolated and lonely. So I sent him an email version of yesterday's entry (I'd intended to do it sooner, but forgot!) and some other selected reading material. I laughed when he confessed that he'd bought the novelization of the Phantom Menace! He called that the ultimate spoiler.

So tomorrow I'll set a reminder in schedule plus, to send him some of his favorite web reading every hour or so. Davenet, other news things, or funny, cool stuff.

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I keep a bowl of candy on my desk at work. It's a beautiful wooden bowl, turned on a lathe by my mother. When I was a young girl, our family went on a trip to the Bay of Fundy in Canada. The Canadian Parks people were very clever -- they had a crafts training center, so after you'd seen the highest tides in the world, you could do some leatherworking, or basket weaving, or carve a wooden bowl.

I started filling this bowl with candy to make myself better known on my team. People grab some and say hi as they walk by. I also bring the bowl to meetings.

Whe I was at Costco with Jack the other day, I bought several large (what else at Costco?) bags of candy, including a bag of salt water taffy. That stuff is addictive! I don't know if it's because of the variety of flavors, or the way it melts in my mouth, but I really like it.

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I'd thought that tonight was the last class of the session at the Savoy Swing club, but actually we have one more week to go. My buddy Jon Newman (he's a classmate right now) was convinced to come along to the Washington Dance Club after class. He's started a listserv for Fool Serious (full series) passholders, and I joined today. Not much traffic, yet.

There was a good assortment of leads tonight, so I got my share of dancing in. Dancers who are all very good, ability-wise, can really vary in their styles of leading. I danced with Steve, who has been working on leading lightly, and with this new guy Phil, who leads so firmly that there is no mistaking his commands for suggestions. But both are good dancers!